When to pay commissions

Another important consideration in your plan, in addition to what you pay, is when you pay commissions. There are three options, each with it’s own implications:

At the time of booking

At time of first payment by the customer

At the time of each payment by the customer

Each company will have their own optimal approach to this. The Bridge Group found that 38 percent of SaaS companies pay commissions when the cash is collected, another 35 percent at booking, and 20 percent when invoicing the customer.

If there is a long lag between the time of booking and first payment, you may want to pay your sales team before the customer payment to keep them motivated, but this will put greater strain on your cashflows. Paying at the time of each payment keeps commission payments closer to actual revenue recognition, and is helpful if you need your sales team focused on retention. But this can result in a more complicated accounting process.

At Matrix, we typically we see the second option, payment at the time of the first payment, being used with a clawback in event of a customer churning.

Accounting for commissions

Along with when you pay, you also need to decide when to recognize commissions in your accounting system. There are two options: